Steward I
Anyone using APRS?
- Thread starter Charlie W2YBX
- Start date
Member III
Run it pretty much all the time.
Have an acquaintance that ran it on a trip from South Texas to Alaska, there were some spots with no coverage especially in Canada and Alaska but not too bad in the contiguous 48.
Have an acquaintance that ran it on a trip from South Texas to Alaska, there were some spots with no coverage especially in Canada and Alaska but not too bad in the contiguous 48.
Member III
Was listening to a podcast about this today. They brought up a bunch of great points both good and bad. I know nothing about this but there’s what the podcast said
The good:
-in areas around the poles, gps devices have some trouble tracking because of where the satellites are. They can’t usually read the poles too well. Aprs seems to not have trouble with this.
-it’s free. No subscription.
-in areas of no cell service. This is a great way for family to track you and see where you’ve been.
-if your in basecamp and are expecting others to join you, you can see where they are. And they can see where you are too.
-they had a couple others that I can’t remember. But they did mention that some radios have the capability to connect to a phone or tablet with Bluetooth and can display on a map where you and others are instead of just a coordinate readout.
The bad: their only complaint was a mixed one. They were driving down a trail. Some random person was able to see their location, then found out what frequency they were communicating on and actually contacted them to let them know they were going down a dead end trail. So the bad is anyone can see where you are. But you can always turn it off when you don’t need it I assume
I don’t have my license yet. But when it comes time. If the budget allows. I’ll be getting a radio with aprs just because it’s another redundant way to be tracked.
The good:
-in areas around the poles, gps devices have some trouble tracking because of where the satellites are. They can’t usually read the poles too well. Aprs seems to not have trouble with this.
-it’s free. No subscription.
-in areas of no cell service. This is a great way for family to track you and see where you’ve been.
-if your in basecamp and are expecting others to join you, you can see where they are. And they can see where you are too.
-they had a couple others that I can’t remember. But they did mention that some radios have the capability to connect to a phone or tablet with Bluetooth and can display on a map where you and others are instead of just a coordinate readout.
The bad: their only complaint was a mixed one. They were driving down a trail. Some random person was able to see their location, then found out what frequency they were communicating on and actually contacted them to let them know they were going down a dead end trail. So the bad is anyone can see where you are. But you can always turn it off when you don’t need it I assume
I don’t have my license yet. But when it comes time. If the budget allows. I’ll be getting a radio with aprs just because it’s another redundant way to be tracked.
Member III
I run a Bluetooth tnc (Mobilinkd) and display the stations on my tablet running APRSdroid. Works great.
As far as people seeing your location, you can turn on Position Ambiguity, at least in APRSdroid you can.
You can also send messages from one APRS user to another APRS user, send SMS text to a cell phone, send a short email, etc.
As far as people seeing your location, you can turn on Position Ambiguity, at least in APRSdroid you can.
You can also send messages from one APRS user to another APRS user, send SMS text to a cell phone, send a short email, etc.
Enthusiast I
One of the reasons I chose a Yaesu 400XDR was for its APRS abilities. I activate it whenever I am in the Jeep, which is pretty much daily. I also use APRS.fi on my phone and iPad. I’m a member of my Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue unit, and we are moving towards greater and greater use of APRS in order to stay aware of where our team members are located during a search as well as locating a lost or injured party via their beacon. I know that APRS will be a requirement for my next hand held, though right now I am not fond of any of the currently available HT radios.
Steward I
Thanks @theorangekl
I think my biggest con is: So far, I haven't run into or traveled with anyone that uses APRS. I totally agree about it being a good idea regarding another way to track/be tracked. You never know when you're gonna need it.
Steward I
Thanks @Prerunner1982
I didn't know about "Position Ambiguity". Sounds like a great feature, I'm going to research this, thanks!
Steward I
Thanks @Kumayama
I like the interface of the Yaesu 400XDR, the head unit looks fantastic, I've heard great things about the Kenwood TM-D710GA, those are my my top 2 choices. I'm still looking at non APRS dual bands as well for the main reason of simplicity.
Member III
I like the look of the 400 but have seen numerous posts noting the D710 as being better for APRS.
I assembled my ham gear a little at a time so my first mobile radio purchase was a dual band (Yaesu FT-8800).
When I got into APRS I tried to do it with a Baofeng HT, which I was not happy with.
Rather than drop $500+ on a new dual band APRS capable radio I added an additional 2m mono band Yaesu FTm-3100.
Now I still have dual band for voice and APRS running on it's own. I could have run APRS through my existing dual band but I could not use voice at the same time, which defeats the purpose.
My current setup is the Yaesu FTM-3100, Mobilnkd TNC, and a cheap Android tablet running APRSdroid.
I like the Mobilnkd TNC due to the bluetooth capability, and one less cable running around the interior. The TNC can be charged via a USB cable and will hold a charge for many many days.
I keep mine plugged in and it can be set to turn on or off when it gets power from the USB.
I assembled my ham gear a little at a time so my first mobile radio purchase was a dual band (Yaesu FT-8800).
When I got into APRS I tried to do it with a Baofeng HT, which I was not happy with.
Rather than drop $500+ on a new dual band APRS capable radio I added an additional 2m mono band Yaesu FTm-3100.
Now I still have dual band for voice and APRS running on it's own. I could have run APRS through my existing dual band but I could not use voice at the same time, which defeats the purpose.
My current setup is the Yaesu FTM-3100, Mobilnkd TNC, and a cheap Android tablet running APRSdroid.
I like the Mobilnkd TNC due to the bluetooth capability, and one less cable running around the interior. The TNC can be charged via a USB cable and will hold a charge for many many days.
I keep mine plugged in and it can be set to turn on or off when it gets power from the USB.
I have used APRS for about 6 year or abouts. My main reason is for the wife to keep track of me, But she forgets how to use it most of the time. I think it a great platform for local search and rescue, Can be used in off-road or overland events also.
Enthusiast I
I’m not familiar with the Kenwood so can’t offer much in the way of a comparison. What I can say is that the Yaesu has the best screen and easiest to use controls of any radio that I have ever used (everything from Motorolas to Baofengs). I find it’s touch screen to be very responsive and accessible—not as good as an iPhone, but very useable even in a bouncing Jeep.
I run two dual band radios in my Jeep as I vastly prefer to use the Yaesu but have to run a Powerwerx to use the narrow emergency services and SAR frequencies. The Powerwerx is a credible radio ( and the standard for many SAR teams) but its display is just painful to read compared to the Yaesu 400. If you want the best APRS mapping display, regardless of radio, your going to want to integrate a tablet.
Endurance II
I am also using APRS. Yaesu FTM400 in rig and FT70 Handheld for hiking and crossband repeat. The 400 has APRS included but not the FT70 Brent KJ7BHN
Plasmajab
Rank IV
Off-Road Ranger I
I have it, I just havent installed it in my new rig, but we put a node in on our repeater we just built. Its nice because our cell service here has more holes then a block of swiss cheese.. Our repeater doesnt... As much.
Enthusiast II
There is APRS.fi for Apple product users. I think it was $7. I am in Alaska and APRS digipeaters and igates are slim. Mainly in Anchorage/Mat-Su valley and Fairbanks areas. Canada is slim between population centers. Most of my local ham club members use it continuously. As I’m still working on setting up an APRS rig, I try to remember to run my app when I leave home. APRSIS has an app you can run in Windows that lets you basically report where it is to the APRS network. When I’m not gaming, I leave it running. At some point I plan to set up an igate at the house as well.
Endurance II
I think it depends on your equipment also. I saw a track of a guy that was running FTM400 from Arizona to Alaska. There where very few places that did not record a track or beacon. I have it on whenever I am in my expedition rig.
Enthusiast II
From what I have seen, it’s mostly the area you’re in. Places like SoCal have massive amateur radio infrastructure and many, many people using the systems. Here in Alaska, it’s mainly in the two large population centers of Anchorage and Fairbanks. APRS reports over 2m (VHF). There has to be an igate or digipeater for your radio to report to that uplinks your position to the APRS system. Those devices some ham has to buy, set up and keep operating. Many just don’t want to or can’t do this, causing areas with spotty coverage. The apps I mentioned earlier get around that by reporting directly to the system using the cellular data network. Because of the gaps and limitations to the 2m reporting, I keep the app as my primary right now until I get a radio set up to take over. I’ll still keep the app for when I am using a different vehicle or in areas without APRS coverage.
Member III
I'm going to bump this up.
For those of you who are ARRL members, QST had a neat article in it for December on modern APRS capable radios being able to decode frequency and repeater info in your APRS text and automatically setting your radio to that. It was a nice read and I'm looking forward to figuring out that feature on my FTM-400XDR when it gets here.
For those of you who are ARRL members, QST had a neat article in it for December on modern APRS capable radios being able to decode frequency and repeater info in your APRS text and automatically setting your radio to that. It was a nice read and I'm looking forward to figuring out that feature on my FTM-400XDR when it gets here.
Enthusiast I
APRS is extremely useful. In overlanding situations I use it mainly to get weather reports but have sent txt messages before I got my SpotX. It's also really nice when you find "that trail" but did not have any kind of GPS logging enabled on anything. On my FTM-400 I've enabled gps logging but usually just go to aprs.fi and look at my track. The GPS displays on the 400 are pretty cool too. I have the habit of watching the altitude graph as I travel.
I also use APRS in my travels, when I remember to hook up my tablet. I use a D710 with a NUVI 350 and GTRANS cable (old method, still use once in a while) or with a Samsung TAB2 8 inch with a Mobilinkd bluetooth TNC. I use APRSdroid with Backcountry Navigator Pro for the display. Backcountry Navigator Pro has a tie to APRSdroid so I can use offline topo maps instead of relying on the online mapping on APRSdroid. I also have a HF radio (IC-7000, Little Tarheel II) in the rig also for when I am out of range of repeaters. Another feature of the D710 can listen to the NOAA weather radio and tune into that radio when an alert is transmitted (if in range of one).
Bryan
K7GX
Bryan
K7GX
Member III
